Many hearing loss patients have some degree of residual hearing in the low frequencies (e.g., below 1 kHz) and a severe hearing loss in the high frequencies (e.g., above 1 kHz). These people cannot benefit from traditional hearing aid amplification because of the severity of the hearing loss in the high frequencies. Nor are they classic cochlear implant candidates, because of their mostly intact low frequency residual hearing.
For this group of people, electro-acoustic stimulation (“EAS”) systems have been developed that provide such patients with the ability to perceive both low and high frequencies. Electro-acoustic stimulation combines the functionality of a hearing aid and a cochlear implant together in the same ear by providing acoustic stimulation representative of low frequency audio content and electrical stimulation representative of high frequency content. The auditory nerve combines the acoustic and electric stimuli into one auditory signal. Results of various studies have shown that electro-acoustic stimulation may enhance speech understanding, pitch discrimination, and music appreciation.
To facilitate electro-acoustic stimulation, a cochlear implant and an electrode array are implanted within a patient as part of a surgical implantation procedure. Following the implantation procedure, the patient is typically required to wait for a period of time (e.g., a few weeks) before the EAS system is turned on to allow the patient to heal from the surgical procedure. Unfortunately, this means that the patient does not benefit from the EAS system during the post-implant waiting period. Moreover, without an enabled EAS system, it is difficult for a clinician to assess or measure how the implantation procedure affected the patient's residual hearing or how the patient's residual hearing progresses during the post-implant waiting period.